AI Drake, AI friends, AI everything

Today, things got a little loose in the studio of The Vergecast. Switched on Pop's Charlie Harding joins Nilay Patel, Alex Cranz, and David Pierce to make their own version of Drake's AI summer classic. We're not saying a laser bong was involved, but we're not not saying that either. Then deputy editor Alex Heath stops by to tell us about Snaps latest announcements and give us an update on the latest round of layoffs at Meta. And finally, a lightning round with all the big headlines in tech from this week. Further reading: AI Drake just set an impossible legal trap for Google: https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/19/23689879/ai-drake-song-google-youtube-fair-use It’s a laser bong: https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/20/23500415/laser-bong-420-nice-hitoki-saber Google employees label AI chatbot Bard ‘worse than useless’ and ‘a pathological liar’: https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/19/23689554/google-ai-chatbot-bard-employees-criticism-pathological-liar What’s really going on with ‘Ghostwriter’ and the AI Drake song?: https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/18/23688141/ai-drake-song-ghostwriter-copyright-umg-the-weeknd Family of F1 legend Michael Schumacher plans legal action over fake AI interview: https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/20/23691415/michael-schumacher-fake-ai-generated-interview-racing-f1-lawsuit Snapchat releases My AI chatbot to all users for free: https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/19/23688913/snapchat-my-ai-chatbot-release-open-ai Google’s big AI push will combine Brain and DeepMind into one team: https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/19/23688913/snapchat-my-ai-chatbot-release-open-ai Netflix is shutting down its original DVD business after 25 years: https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/18/23688543/netflix-dvd-com-business-25-years Netflix is out of the DVD business because streaming won – now, can Netflix still win?: https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/19/23689447/netflix-dvd-mail-ending-streaming Twitter begins removing blue checkmarks from all legacy users: https://www.theverge.com/2023